If you ever saw a Wiesmann on the road, consider yourself lucky. This rare roadster was often only seen in German auto shows, and it was impressive nonetheless. Sadly, the company went bankrupt in May 2014. Roheen Berry bought it in March 2016 and decided to bring Wiesmann back, with its first vehicle probably being an electric car.
Berry is the heir of Benoy Berry, the founder of Contec Global Group. Although it seems that he bought Wiesmann on his own, Contec presents the company as its luxury automotive division. The African conglomerate has a motto that suits electric cars pretty well: “technology to sustain and advance humanity.” That’s where the new Wiesmann project fits.
Called Thunderball, the new roadster is presented by the company and its new CEO as a “recharged motoring icon.” The company also said it wanted to get back to the market with a “recharged ambition.” Shocking, right?
The images and the video disclosed by the company also suggest that the Thunderball will have a battery pack. Pay attention to the rear of the roadster in our gallery: there are no visible exhaust pipes. In a performance car, they are mandatory unless the vehicle does not have a combustion engine.
The profile picture of the roadster undergoing winter testing also shows there is no apparent exhaust pipe anywhere. On the contrary: the underbody of the Thunderball is unusually flat. That suggests the new vehicle is built over a skateboard platform.
Considering Wiesmann and BMW had a long-time partnership before the smaller German carmaker went bust, we would not find it strange if the Thunderball also used a BMW electric platform, as well as its motors. The video shows this prototype is an RWD machine.
Apart from the Thunderball, Wiesmann is also working on the Project Gecko, a coupe with different design elements but apparently the same size. Our latest spy photos of that car date from 2019.
Either Wiesmann adopted a BMW platform, or the artisanal German carmaker developed its own solution and bought only some components from BMW. Both the CLAR and the FAAR (UKL's successor) have that flexibility. The first hypothesis would make it faster to develop the Gecko and the Thunderball while saving money. The question is how much BMW would be willing to share with Wiesmann.
The “recharged” company promised to release more details on the Thunderball soon. Reintroducing the brand with it will give investors the certainty that it does not want to go bankrupt again by showing it is already adapted for the future. The Project Gecko tends to come later to appeal to more traditional Wiesmann fans. This combustion-engined car is expected to be named GT MF 6, keeping the GT MF 4 and GT MF 5 nameplates alive.
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